Let's do this exercise: imagine for a moment that Canada and the USA were enemies with the Canadians having announced that they wanted to drive all Americans out of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. Now imagine that the Canadian armed forces were launching rockets and artillery over the border at Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee. Now let's add the third part to this exercise. Imagine that the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, and Japan called on the USA not to overdo any response to the missile attacks from Canada, but, instead, to stick to a "proportionate response". Got that? So, in that case, what do you think would be the American response to the attacks from Canada?
If you said that the USA would crush the Canadian armed forces with air power, a land invasion and any other means available so as to end the missile attacks, you are undoubtedly correct. No call from our allies would stop the USA from protecting its citizens from missile attacks aimed at killing them.
So why is it that president Obama thinks that his call for a proportionate response by Israel to the missile attacks from Hamas in Gaza will bring a different sort of response? No nation that hopes to survive can allow its enemies to launch attacks without doing all it can to crush those enemies. I know that. You know that. Even Obama and John Kerry know that. Nevertheless, they ask Israel not to defend itself fully. It is ridiculous.
Remember, this fighting was brought on by Hamas kidnapping and then murdering three Israeli children. That some nuts in Israel responded by doing the same to a Palestinian boy was unforgiveable, but the Israeli government has already arrested those responsible. Now, Hamas is using the upset as a reason for launching these missile attacks.
It is hard to understand what the real reason is for the Hamas attacks at this point. One could argue that the intention is to make sure that there is no peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but that was already a given since the peace talks collapsed. Had Hezbollah launched missiles, it would be easy to understand that it was really Iran calling the shot, but Hamas and Iran are now enemies. It is possible that the Hamas attacks are designed to make certain that if ISIS invades Jordan, the government of King Abdullah will not be able to ask Israel for help since the Israelis will be in the midst of crushing Hamas in Gaza and the Jordanian army will not want to fight alongside the Israelis. That explanation, however, seems almost silly. Can it really be that Hamas would attack Israel, suffer major casualties in a counterattack, and lose most of its weapons with little prospect of rearmament just so that ISIS could fight a weaker foe in the Jordanian army? Even Hamas is not that stupid.
If you said that the USA would crush the Canadian armed forces with air power, a land invasion and any other means available so as to end the missile attacks, you are undoubtedly correct. No call from our allies would stop the USA from protecting its citizens from missile attacks aimed at killing them.
So why is it that president Obama thinks that his call for a proportionate response by Israel to the missile attacks from Hamas in Gaza will bring a different sort of response? No nation that hopes to survive can allow its enemies to launch attacks without doing all it can to crush those enemies. I know that. You know that. Even Obama and John Kerry know that. Nevertheless, they ask Israel not to defend itself fully. It is ridiculous.
Remember, this fighting was brought on by Hamas kidnapping and then murdering three Israeli children. That some nuts in Israel responded by doing the same to a Palestinian boy was unforgiveable, but the Israeli government has already arrested those responsible. Now, Hamas is using the upset as a reason for launching these missile attacks.
It is hard to understand what the real reason is for the Hamas attacks at this point. One could argue that the intention is to make sure that there is no peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but that was already a given since the peace talks collapsed. Had Hezbollah launched missiles, it would be easy to understand that it was really Iran calling the shot, but Hamas and Iran are now enemies. It is possible that the Hamas attacks are designed to make certain that if ISIS invades Jordan, the government of King Abdullah will not be able to ask Israel for help since the Israelis will be in the midst of crushing Hamas in Gaza and the Jordanian army will not want to fight alongside the Israelis. That explanation, however, seems almost silly. Can it really be that Hamas would attack Israel, suffer major casualties in a counterattack, and lose most of its weapons with little prospect of rearmament just so that ISIS could fight a weaker foe in the Jordanian army? Even Hamas is not that stupid.
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